Every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. during the program, Jim Santel, a cherub from St. Louis, walked to 212 Fisk to meet with his instructor. The sign-up sheet for meetings hung on the door, adorned with Bob Dylan quotes. Santel took a seat in the office across from John Kupetz, his cherub instructor.
“I actually look forward to meeting with my instructor,” Santel said. “John always gave me really good advice, encouraged me to hang in there and I could always count on him for some good laughs.”
Each week, cherub have one-on-one meetings with their instructor. Each instructor holds meetings to the student’s work and cover any questions the cherub has about assignments. But these discussions aren’t limited to assignments.
Kupetz helps his students decipher his notoriously murky handwriting. Santel said Kupetz gave constructive criticism and answered questions about reporting techniques. He also said they also discussed literature and politics.
“We like to rip on Dick Cheney,” Santel said. “We talk about authors and books. We were talking about James Joyce last meeting, and he told me not to read ‘Ulysses’ as my first Joyce novel.”
Amy Parlapiano, a cherub from Eastchester, N.Y., said the instructors try to guess what is happening between the students. Kelly Regan, a cherub from Westford, Mass., said her instructor, Jenny Hontz, loved to talk about the students and asked for gossip in some of the meetings.
“She knew everything,” Regan said. “I didn’t even have to tell her sometimes.”
Santel said Kupetz wore a horror movie shirt to each conference, cracked jokes about cherubs who will someday be his boss and often broke into laughter.
“Kupetz was awesome,” Santel said. “He inspires me with his three green pens, because he says green is the color of hope.” |
